South Shore startup wins international business competition

A startup on Nova Scotia's south shore has just won an international business competition in Italy. T. Riviere Farming Company, which runs the Go Micro brand, beat out 11 other startups from Canada and Europe. The company produces freeze-dried micro broccoli products. Here to talk about it, Greg Kerwin, the owner, with your pride and joy here now, your new pride and joy, the trophy on display here as well in our studio, which you proudly won. Tell me about this. I know it comes with a bit of prize money, but I guess it's more about the exposure, isn't it? Yeah, thank you for having me today. It is a significant exposure. It's significant brand awareness. I'm quite still in a little bit of shock that we won just seeing the messages and so forth about winning this award. Look, Tom, we're a little farm in rural Nova Scotia. and to be able to go over there and we were hoping just to finish in the top three and when they announced it, we were over the moon. It was announced in a 200-year-old Italian castle. It couldn't have placed a better setting. My wife was with me. We were celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary at the time and two teammates from the farm, so it was a special, special moment. It all came together. You won it. That does make it special that it's such a small farm from rural Nova Scotia. First of all, tell me a little bit about the operation. Yeah, it's a farm that I bought two years ago, which was just kind of vacant in buildings. I have previous background in the indoor farming space. I kind of had an itch. We built a pretty good high-tech greenhouse about a year and a half ago. And I've been researching this compound sulforaphane for over 10 years. That started the process. We added a lot more technology, hired a great team. I think the team is probably the reason why I'm sitting here, hardworking. And we launched in December, and the response of the market has actually been quite overwhelming. So we're at a classic stage now, particularly with this award and this awareness internationally. Where do we go next? And no shortage of opportunity, that's for sure. And this type of exposure, you can't put a price tag on. Tell me how you came to learn about the compound, because that's interesting. Yeah, I mean, I think back in the day, I founded a company called Goodleaf Farms in Truro. We were building high-tech indoor vertical farms, spending millions and millions of dollars. At the same time, my mother came down with cancer. And so in my very simple thinking, you know, what compound could help cancer? And it kept coming back, my research, to sulforaphane. The science and evidence on this compound is profound. It's not what we think. The literature and the evidence is profound. So that really started the journey. I was doing a lot of R&D with it back in the Goodleaf days. We were talking to some significant partners. I retired from Goodleaf, kind of parked it for a while, and then had an itch to get back into it. And now when you look at, Tom, our cancer rates in Canada, and particularly Nova Scotia, which has some of the highest rates, and it's not just about cancer. It's really a compound that affects so many broad aspects of human health and cell health and inflammation and skin care. And now what we're learning is high-end athletes are using it for sports recovery. And what I do know is that one of Canada's most noted athletes is quite a fond supporter of our product. Who would that be? I can't say. Okay, maybe another interview another day. Well, you point out this notion that this is happening in rural Nova Scotia. which adds some significance to this and maybe shines a light a little bit on the way things can be done. Yeah I think for me you know at my stage of my career and I've been relatively successful for me this project was about innovation in rural Nova Scotia. You know part of me wanted to show and illustrate that it can be done. This is a there's a lot of R&D and IP here there's really cool things going on on farm design on research on plant compounds but for me it was can you do it in rural Nova Scotia? And honestly, we need more of this. Halifax, we're very Halifax-centric. If we can shine a light that there's no ceiling on what you can do, whether you're in Digby County or Cape Breton or Kings County, we just need more of this, and I think that gives the province a balance. But, look, I've been very fortunate to surround myself with some really good people that work so hard and so passionate about this. I'm just along for the ride here. That's a great story, too. Quickly, before I let you go, we only have a minute or so left here. Where do you see the company going from here? I know you produce a product that's in powder form. What happens next to the product to your company? Yeah, I mean, very interesting things are happening in a very short period of time. We have significant nutraceutical, vitamin supplement companies interested, and there's clearly an opportunity to sell this product as a bulk ingredient for them to create their own products. We have our Go Micro brand today that's being sold in Canada in a powdered format. We're looking at what I call the vehicle. Does it go into a capsule? Does it go into a shot? Does it go into, we're looking at developing a skin care brand. This product is, compound is very good for psoriasis and eczema and we're working with some local clients. So I really don't know. I know we're going to expand the greenhouse. I'm taking this very cautiously again you know historically you would think someone in my position that we got to go big and we got to go scale and I think I learned over my career sometimes Tom that you know that probably doesn't always have to be the case and at the end of the day we're going to have an impact in rural Nova Scotia there's a great opportunity in the European market I just got home last night from Europe there's clearly interest so I'm we're just going to be very diligent and stick to our Nova Scotia roots we'll watch Watch where it goes. Greg Kerwin, thank you very much. Thank you.